Mumbai monorail disruption: Service restored, CM orders probe

Monorail services in Mumbai were on Sunday disrupted due to power failure, leaving 11 passengers and two of its pilots stranded inside the train near Bhakti Park in Wadala area, even as Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Monorail services in Mumbai were on Sunday disrupted due to power failure, leaving 11 passengers and two of its pilots stranded inside the train near Bhakti Park in Wadala area, even as Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Services were restored after about three hours, a MMRDA official said.

The fire brigade received a call in the morning about some passengers being stuck in the monorail near Wadala.

"We got a call at around 9am about the incident and immediately our rescue team reached the spot and we have managed to rescue 11 people," a fire brigade official said.

MMRDA joint project director Dilip Kawathkar said the services have been resumed.

"The incident occurred at around 8.30am. Immediately rescue operations were carried out. We had also pressed into service one more rail to restore the power supply. Now the services are normal," he said.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who visited the spot, criticised the disaster management facility and asked the MMRDA to ensure that such mishaps do not reoccur.

"This incident is an eye opener. This shows that there is no disaster management facility made available either by the MMRDA or the private company which has developed the project. MMRDA should conduct an inquiry into the matter and submit its report in three days and also ensure such incidents don't reoccur," Somaiya told reporters.

The Mumbai monorail, the first such service in the country, had started between Wadala Depot and Chembur in the metropolis in February last year. The project was implemented by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), along with a consortium of Mumbai-based conglomerate.